Goldman and his colleagues estimate that delayed aging could increase life expectancy by an additional 2.2 years and generate more than $5 trillion in social value. When aging is delayed, say the authors, all fatal and disabling disease risks are also lowered. Although delayed aging would also greatly increase entitlement outlays, the researchers demonstrate that these costs can be managed through modest policy changes, such as indexing the eligibility ages for Social Security and Medicare.

Comments (12)

Increasing life expectancy would only benefit society to the extent that it also increases productivity. It’s easy to see how extending the career of a skilled surgeon would benefit society. It’s less clear how extending the retirement of a skilled surgeon would help anybody but the golf course owners in Florida.